Average Weekly Training?

RE: Average Weekly Training?

Former Member — Fri, 06 Jun 2003 13:28:15 GMT

Ok here is what I do over here in the UK.I have to say first that a lot of guys I see at the pool just seem to feel that they should just crank up the laps without trying to improve the quality of their swimming, by doing less metres and more drills.I try to visit my local swim pool at Beckenham at least 4 times a week.They have Masters training also on another evening,so I might add that to my schedule.I swim 2000 metres on each of my visits,trying to mix it up with drills and straight swimming.I have found that since I lost my job two weeks ago that my swimming had become a welcome break for me from the harsh realities of trying to get another job as soon as possible.Hope that didn't sound too deep.What I was saying was that now I am temporarily out of work it gives me the chance to actually be able to choose just when I swim and it means that I enjoy it more as I know that I don't have to rush off to work.

RE: Average Weekly Training?

Former Member — Thu, 05 Jun 2003 15:43:20 GMT

I agree with the belief that quality workouts are better than quantity of yardage. I find it very hard to balance family (2 and 4 year old) and work. I am 35 and swim 3-4 times a week at 5:30 in the am. I get in about 3000-3500 each workout. I train by myself so I can target my workout to produce the results I want as I like to compete in open water and distance events. I can pace a 1000 yd swim with repeating 100s at 1.10 - 1.15. While I don't pack in major amounts of yardage in a week, I am very satisfied with my swim results and the time I spend with my family:cool:

RE: Average Weekly Training?

Former Member — Thu, 05 Jun 2003 15:27:10 GMT

I would like to do a 5th practice but the way the health club is open, it unfortunately closes early on Friday and I don't want to get up early on a work day and go to the rec pool. Maybe, I should expand the time at the rec pool for more time. I think ther reasons why I'm not able to drop my time like I did when I was 13 years old is partly my age-46 and I practice on average a day less than I did then when I did similar yardage on a novice/low level AAU team then than I do now. So Matt when are you turning 45 years old and entering in my age group?

RE: Average Weekly Training?

Former Member — Thu, 05 Jun 2003 14:06:29 GMT

I swim 4,000 yards in my morning practices on m-w-f from 5-630am. I really like the morning practice because I can get the swim time in while the family is still snoozing. I also swim every evening, averaging about 4,000 per practice. If I am not swimming a meet on weekend, I will do an easy swim on Saturday just to keep the feel of the water. That gives me about 32k a week. Throw in weights on m-w-f after I get back from night practice. Even with amount of time I train, I certainly still have time for my family. I have not yet missed a kids soccer game, daughters ice skating, dinner or even work for that matter :-) I even have time for the Indian Priness and Indian Guide program with my kids. I believe that if you want to put in the time, you can without sacraficing the chance at divorce court. Luckily, my family supports my swimming and they even got a vacation out to Tempe last month, although, they are bypassing NJ in August. With my training, kids activities, and being on call for work 7x24x365, I certainly stay busy, but I am also one of those that can function on 4-5hrs sleep which is what I get a night. See ya in Jersey, Greg

RE: Average Weekly Training?

Former Member — Thu, 05 Jun 2003 07:23:12 GMT

Greg Thank you for the reponse. I just want to say , the sechulde you do now will make life a lot better down the road, or as you get up in age. You see I am an avid excerise person. I have been in some kind of traing or excerising. since age 15 which included gymanastics boxing weightlifting body building some diving etc. I guess got the picture. But as far as swimming goes, I never competive swimming untill approx 5 years ago age at that time 64. But I must tell you As a younger person I did alot of ocean swimming very little pool swimming. But although I did not compete , I could swimfor miles and I lterally mean miles. But the whole point to this story is . Try to contiune down the path you are on ,although their may be times you are not up to it , then dosomething any way. I can tell you what I did when I was younger has helped me tremdously now at age 69.:) :cool: :)

RE: Average Weekly Training?

Former Member — Thu, 05 Jun 2003 06:17:03 GMT

To answer your question Dominick, I am 36, daughter 7 and son 5, won't give the wifes age, I know better :-) As for work, I am in tech field as a network engineer/system administrator. My customer are gov't agencies, so unfortunately bad people don't work 9-5 thus for the round the clock hrs for when people decide to go and get themselves arrested. As for the weights, I do those after the kids are asleep, at home. I keep it pretty simple, but it still hurts. I use 20lb dumbells and do numerous exercises with them. It ends up about 45 minutes with the weights then another 20 for crunches and the exercise ball. Weights I do every other day but the abs are done daily. Lucky for me, my wife is a physical therapist, so not only do i get cool gizmos to try when working my core but she also is very informative about the exercise techinques and whether I'm doing them properly or not.

RE: Average Weekly Training?

Former Member — Thu, 05 Jun 2003 05:28:38 GMT

Greg I think that is a fantastic schulde . I wonder how old you are and what kind of work you do. Do you have time to recoup strength for the next day and the day after etc, And also how hard do you work out with the weights ? And all the other things you do. But any rate keep up the good work.:) :cool: :)

RE: Average Weekly Training?

Former Member — Wed, 04 Jun 2003 15:09:51 GMT

Maybe, the person with the very high yardage was Ron Karnaugh who still swims at the elite level of non-masters swimming and has a flexible enough schedule that he can do that much yardage. The other people I don't know who they are, maybe they are in college or just-past college where they have time to do the yardage.

RE: Average Weekly Training?

Former Member — Wed, 04 Jun 2003 10:16:12 GMT

Anyway, I did little yardage today because I wanted to get an idea of how fast I'm at this time of the year since the last meet was in Feb. I did 10's 50's and did slow warm up on each around 200 yards and took 2.30 to 3 mintues rest before I swam them. I was a little tried but not as sore as when I swim close or exceed 3,000 yards.

RE: Average Weekly Training?

Former Member — Tue, 03 Jun 2003 15:57:26 GMT

I'm a snail too. About half the yardage per week as most of you seem to do. I've recently focused more on time than yards. I'm not very fast so doing 2500 yards was taking up too much of my time. Now I try for at least 60 minutes of quality swimming and don't worry much about how far. (When I'm focusing on fly I swim a lot less but my heart rate is right up there while I'm gasping for air.) It's probably a comment on my general fitness level, but I improved my overall cardio levels when I started swimming less often and cross training more.

RE: Average Weekly Training?

Former Member — Tue, 03 Jun 2003 14:21:03 GMT

I must be a snail about 2400 a week. About 800 x 3 or 4 But I dont count each lap or really look at the clock, takes all the fun out getting too serious!

RE: Average Weekly Training?

Former Member — Tue, 03 Jun 2003 10:55:29 GMT

I find that total yardage is only one measure of what kind of training I am doing. The interval between workouts seems to matter a lot to me. 48 hours is ok, more than 72 and I lose my stroke. A while back I heard about some way to do minimal yardage and still swim fast, but as I recall it involved a fair amount of rest (like late taper workouts all the time) so the elapsed time for workouts was still pretty high, which is not much of a help to me. I am extremely fortunate to have a pool across the street from my office, so I can sneak out and back fairly easily. Some days I do what I call an executive workout that maximizes yardage in a short time frame. An executive workout might be 20x100 on short rest, using the first few as warmup. That is enough to bridge the gap to a longer workout. You have to do what you can to fit swimming in to the rest of your life, but I know that I am better off mentally if I maintain a certain level of training that has more to do with how I feel than how far I go.

RE: Average Weekly Training?

Former Member — Tue, 03 Jun 2003 09:55:40 GMT

i'm on the lower end of the scale- i average about 9000 meters per week, including 3 masters practices and one open water swim. having said that, i've recently just started masters swimming and i plan on upping the mileage once my body has acclimated itself to early am workouts... peace

RE: Average Weekly Training?

Former Member — Mon, 02 Jun 2003 16:26:02 GMT

I try to get in 12K Meters per week in 4 workouts with one of the workouts being mostly kicking. This is WAY less than what I did in college but it is what I can squeeze in. I do more strength training than before though, and have been happy with the results. Buy a couple of dumbells and do some weight training at home.

RE: Average Weekly Training?

Former Member — Mon, 02 Jun 2003 12:39:35 GMT

Perkunas, My weekly routine is pretty similar. I also add yoga once per week for about an hour. There are others who do more yardage (some who do A LOT MORE yardage). What may be of interest to you is that about a year or two ago this subject came up. Paul Smith, who won the 40-44 500 free at Nationals last month, and who is regularly a winner, or close second in sprint freestyle and fly events at Nationals, swims only a bit more than that weekly total. Yes, family commitments, etc., can get in the way of working out as much as we used to (as well as how much working out our bodies can take at our age ;) ). But, as you get slower in the legs, you can get smarter in the head. Nuff said. Matt

RE: Average Weekly Training?

jim thornton — Mon, 02 Jun 2003 08:20:19 GMT

Hi, Perkunas. I started the poll regarding weekly yardage, and it seemed to me most masters swimmers fell into the 9-15k range, with a small number doing 30k+. A friend of mine who is an excellent swimmer told me that he believes performance parallels practice yardage. He also believes that it doesn't matter terribly much if this is "quality" yards or just grind it out "quantity" yards. I have been keeping track of my own swimming for the past few years, and it's ranged from a low of 7200 per week (when I was on the road a lot) to this past year's high of about 14,000. I should note that this is an average for the whole year, and that if I am sick or out of range of a pool, it doesn't matter--whatever I swim (or don't swim) gets put into the spread sheet at the end of that week. I've found that doubling the yardage has had a beneficial effect on almost all my races with the exception of the shorter distance events--50s and to some extent 100s. My 200s and up are much better. I am going to try to see if I can pump things up this year to 20k per week, and see if this makes any further difference. I'll keep you posted. Note: a couple people in the poll indicated they swim 40k a week. I find this kind of dedication amazing--and wonder, perhaps unfairly, if Prozac might make a difference...

RE: Average Weekly Training?

CJR — Mon, 02 Jun 2003 05:20:04 GMT

My workouts depend on the season. In short course yards season (winter) I'm like our friend Lefty here I try to get in 12K per week in 4 workouts. This too is WAY less than what I did in college but it is what I can squeeze in and still keep everything in scope due to a family and other obligations. During the long course meter season (summer) I swim each morning and swim about 2500 yards. I do more strength training and cross traing in the summer for long course. I think depending your time commitment, your ability to get to a pool, your background, and what goals you are trying to accomplish will determine how you train. Thanks & good luck, :D

RE: Average Weekly Training?

Former Member — Sun, 01 Jun 2003 14:41:39 GMT

There was a poll conducted on this board a while ago, entitled "How far do you swim per week" You can see it at: forums.usms.org/showthread.php It also has some interesting discussion of your questions balancing life's obligations and swimming. I didn't swim when I was young ... but with a family and other obligations I top out at 10K per week and a more usual week for me is between 6500 and 8500 yards. I try to swim 5 times per week, seldom more than an hour, and it's often 4 times with one or two cut down to 45 minutes due to other obligations/activities/whatever.

RE: Average Weekly Training?

Former Member — Sun, 01 Jun 2003 11:36:11 GMT

Average probably from 9,000 to 11,500. Low as probably 8,000 yards and a high of 16,500 when I was on vacation from work and swam 6 days that week. As for the 1970's, the early part of the decade was not that high of yardage because goggles didn't come into being by almost every swimmer into practice until late 1971. Many clubs top yardage in 1972 was probably around 10,000 to 12,000 a day. It was around 1973 that swim clubs like Mission Viejo started to up it to 15,000 a day and then 20,000 yards a day.